Tier 2 Abbreviated Guidance

Maria Pintado Services Tier 2 Visas 4 February 2014 | | 0

Tier 2 - Sponsorship

This is a simple explanation for employers looking to take on migrants and people that want to find out about getting sponsored by their employers under the Tier 2 Migrant Points Based (PBS) system. The full guidance is available on the Home Office website

The first stage is the Licence Application. This is different from CoS allocations. This is an employer's Licence to take on employees. It is granted by the Home Office. Any employer found to have illegal migrants working for them are subject to a £10,000.00 fine (there are talks to increase this figure to £20,000). Once granted, you will be placed on the list of all Home Office registered employers.

The second issue an employer has to bear in mind is their CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship) allocation. This allows an employer to issue CoSs (Certificates of Sponsorship). There are two types of CoSs. One is unrestricted and the other is unrestricted. Technically, unrestricted CoSs are for migrants that are allowed to switch ‘in-country' between one type of visa to another. An employer will not have an allocation of unrestricted CoSs. All employers under the registration scheme have to apply for restricted CoSs (this happens on a monthly and quarterly basis and for which the UK government controls the numbers of migrants allowed to come or stay in the UK).

An employer under the PBS scheme will need to renew their CoS allocation periodically. If your allocation is expired, you cannot issue a CoS and will need to apply for an allocation. Your allocation is the number of CoSs that you can issue. This currently takes around a week or so to be confirmed.

Once an employer is Registered by the Home Office and they have an allocation of CoSs, or have been granted a restricted CoS, then they can issue a CoSs. This is the final stage whereby the employee can use this CoS to apply for a Tier 2 Migrant's visa.

To put it all together, First an employer needs to be registered to take on migrants. Once registered, the employer then has to state roughly the number of migrants that they want to take on. Finally, when an employer finds a migrant that they want to employ, they need to issue the migrant a CoS. That person can then make a Tier 2 migrant's visa application.

We assist migrants and employers along every stage of the process. Contact iam to discuss any aspects of the process or post your comments below.